It’s fashionable to your location. At the east coast, I am Mr. First name.
Now in Michigan I am Mr. Last name.
Here it’s cute but very uncommon. Back when I worked with kids 3-6, one of our five-year-olds was told by his mom that calling a teacher by their first name was rude, so he called us all “Miss [first name]” which was adorably charming. None of the other kids did, though.
a canadian used to call me that way. he’s from southern canada, i think.
It seems to have been a universal pre-K daycare thing when my daughter was growing up in Texas. Every caregiver was “Miss Lynda, Miss Irene,” etc.
The only time I’ve found myself addressed that way was among non-native English speakers who frankly didn’t strike me as very sophisticated.
Hi everyone,
This topic is very interesting for me, for in my culture, people address one another by Titles + First name. And, when they learn English and wants to speak English, they say Mr/Mrs + First name. And I always correct my people, never say that, since in English language [ As grammar says ] , titles never comes with First name, but whether Family name or Full name.
So, I didn’t know that, over there, you use Titles with First names!
Please tell me how common or rare is the case over there. I’d be grateful, if you mention in which States this is more common. [ Even mention the city, if possible ].
How about UK and Canada? Do they?
snort
I honestly don’t see the problem here.
I haven’t heard it used in Ireland.
I’ve been under the impression that it’s an Hispanic thing. For example, the Hispanic gentleman who works behind the counter in the deli I frequent for lunch always refers to me as “Mr. Dave”.
Never ran into this until I lived in Virginia. I really like it; there were several ladies with whom I worked that were called ‘Miss Firstname’ all the time, and now that I’m in California I hear it on occasion as well. I really, really like it for some reason.
Very Southern. My friends with children instruct them to call me “Ms. SCL” until I tell them otherwise. It’s a form of respect, while still implying the respect due to an elder.
I still respect my elders, it’s just getting harder to find them.
It is fascinating how varied interpersonal interactions are in this country. I have observed this phenomenon during my travels across the US. If I understand it correctly, many feel the need to lower themselves before those they perceive as above them on some imagined social hierarchy (e.g. individuals with an earlier birth date, one’s boss, the president, etc.) The ritual described in the OP is one manner of doing this. Omission of the honorific denotes a failure to “respect” the addressee, a grave mistake amongst those who subscribe to this dieing social fantasy. In the few areas where this speech pattern is still prevalent, one sees it quite often when children address adults. Since children are not yet real people, to address an adult as a fellow human is a grave offense that requires correction and possibly punishment. When the speech direction is reversed (i.e. adult to child) the honorific may be omitted, as is befitting a lesser being. I understand that a similar system used to be in place for interactions between people of different races when one race was perceived as lesser than the other.
I have found that the ritual is not so strongly in place for interactions amongst adults, because I have not yet encountered people who objected to my calling them by their name or names alone, or who object to addressing me without honorifics as requested.
It’s common, but it’s also non-standard, so I would continue to advise them against it. As you can see, it’s at least slightly more common (or perceived as being more common) among the lower class, less educated, and less affluent or in regions of the country that are perceived as such. It’s also more common among foreigners who speak English as a second language than among native speakers. So even if they use it perfectly, they may be perceived as fitting a stereotype they wish to avoid. On the other hand, because it’s non-standard, it’s never incorrect to avoid using it.
Or maybe you have it backwards. It used to be that titles were commonly used among equals, even between married couples. Only a child, a servant or an animal would be spoken to without a title.
Nowadays, with our youth culture and the flow of popular culture from the lower classes upward (where it used to flow generally from the upper classes downward) people no longer want to be treated like adults. We want to wear children’s clothes (t-shirts and baseball caps) and use the latest slang and act insulted if someone calls us “ma’am” or “sir” because it suggests we might be old. We see nothing wrong with being spoken to the way slaves and “lower classes” were once addressed because we feel better pretending to lower ourselves to create equality rather than risk bringing others up to what was once the norm.
Or maybe it’s all just cultural flotsam that changes like hemlines and hairstyles.
Yah, echoing the trivia that people being on a last-name basis with each other is a common Militaryism in the US. In our case, I’m betting it’s mostly because we all have our last names stitched onto our uniforms (presumably to make laundry easier:D) It gets really fun when someone has an unusual or hard-to-pronounce name. I knew a guy we called S-15, and once answered to a Senior NCO we all called “Master Sergeant N”
Me, my last name is easy to say, two-syllables, no particularly exotic pronunciations. But it’s unusual. So I have to keep my ears tuned to about 50 various pronunciations and potential nicknames of varying quality and politeness. 
I’ve had this happen to me a few times. Mostly with classmates who were immigrants from Asian countries where the name order is reversed.
I actually don’t mind this one. Mr. Lastname was my Dad, and having people call me that makes me feel as old as I am getting to be. I knew a family with 4 daughters that all used to call me Mr. Firstname. The only problem was I could never keep the three younger daughter’s names straight…They were three fashionable names for girls born around then, but the eldest had a pretty unusual name so it was easy to keep straight.
Many years ago I dated a girl who went to a beauty college. They were sticklers about calling students and teachers Miss Firstname, or Mr. Firstname. I have noticed lots of Hair stylist’s stick with that. My GF had a favorite teacher, Miss Liz, and I am quite sure I never heard her last name…not even sure GF knew it.
ETA, yeah it’s a Southern thing. I have known several people who refer to their mom as Miss Firstname, Just like on “Dallas”.
More than a few relatives of my Japanese wife call me Mr. ________ (given name). For them, it’s the equivalent of “________-san” but with an English flair. Hehehe.
My wife tells the story about one of her Japanese coworkers speaking to an American customer:
COWORKER: May I take your coat, Mr. . . . .?
CUSTOMER: Call me Peter.
COWORKER: May I take your coat Mr. Callmepeter?
Because “Mister Son of Mogh” sounds weird.
For the record, calling peers by last name only (with no “Mr.”) was the norm in my midwestern highschool.
I’ve seen it too with recent immigrants. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the custome back home or if they really just don’t have an instinct for what are first names and what are last names in English (especially in cultures where surname/given name are reversed).
It’s one thing I loved about having a female given name as a last name and a family name as a first name. No one ever called me by my last name.